Ishamsho-Polaris War
The Ishamsho-Polaris War was a conflict fought between the Ishamshuk Empire and the Kingdom of Polaris. Background On October 10th of 2412, humanity’s colony in the Polaris system, numbering half a billion people under the banner of the Kingdom of Polaris was prosperous and a capable force within the region. Merchant convoys zipped back and forth between Polaris and nearby stars including the capital of the aspiring Human stellar empire, Earth. It was also far out of the human sphere of influence and into that of the Ishamshuk. A patrol fleet of which had encountered Polaris and scouted the colony before withdrawing to Ichtalu to report what was perceived as a border incident. Opening Moves The Ishamshuk deliberated but eventually came to the conclusion that an attack was justified. A new war fleet was assembled consisting of the feared Terror ships, battlecruisers, base constructors, supply craft, troop carriers and light cruisers. 1000 smaller craft of the Atmospheric Corps followed in their respective carrier ships, making for a total of 80 ships, all large and combat-ready. The trip would take 8 days and the fleet was headed by grand admiral Uruk-sha, with the objective of taking Polaris II by force from the humans. The battle plan revolved around a surprise attack and quick blockade, destroying as much as possible before the humans could hope to mount an effective defense as well as destroying all outgoing and incoming ships so that news of the attack would spread very slowly, so they hoped. Arrival Arrival in the Polaris system on October 18th was successful and according to plan. 29 merchant ships were destroyed simultaneously within minutes of arrival and the fleet entered orbit around Polaris II, dispatching the Atmospheric Corps, diving down to bomb cities and provide air support for the ground forces that followed from the troop carriers. Base constructors also dropped pods allowing for the construction of forward bases and field hospitals. The Ishamshuk had established air superiority and were on the offensive - all of which was accomplished in less than 1.5 hours. The Kingdom of Polaris’ military was crippled by this point. All military airports were cratered and would take days to repair, rendering the airforce docile while Ishamshuk aircraft could strike with impunity - anti-air weapons inflicting little losses on the fast, hard to hit and stealthy Ishamshuk planes. Ishamshuk and Human forces clashed, battling fiercely in the capital metro center of Polaris City, but being mostly lead by colonial and militia forces were overwhelmed by superior Ishamshuk technology, concentration of force, and use of mind control and telepathy to confuse and scatter human resistance. Guerilla War The ground war quickly dissolved into guerilla warfare, survivors formed hideouts while cities were littered with dead, roads crowded with fried cars and charred buildings. These hideouts of survivors eventually pooled into three major outposts that hid from Ishamshuk aerial patrols in dense, narrow underground shelters. Eventually, however, a topographic scan revealed the anomalies caused by the underground bases and the locations of these otherwise invulnerable hideouts were known to the Ishamshuk. Using terror weapons and mind control the Ishamshuk caused panic among survivor groups, directing them to retreat into the main stronghold shelter where the Ishamshuk could do a concentrated assault and wipe out all resistance in one blow. Thus began the shortest siege in recorded recent history. In 25 minutes, the Siege of Northwest Shelter ended with Ishamshuk Victory. The resistance was scattered, disorganized, poorly disciplined and poorly equipped, being overwhelmed in the narrow corridors that contributed to close quarters combat being commonplace - an area of combat the Ishamshuk specialized in, as their telepathy forced soldiers to turn against one another, panic and drop weapons, and their melee weapons were devastating against the lightly-armored civilian and militia forces, whose chemical projectile weapons were not able to pierce the dense metal carapaces that adorned the Ishamshuk troops. News reaches Earth Eventually a merchant ship that had been on the run from Ishamshuk patrols had totally escaped the blockade, though the Ishamshuk had detected it before it disappeared, prompting a distress call back to Ichtalu requesting reinforcements, both to tighten the blockade and as a precaution against probable human forces entering the area to save Polaris. In 5 days the surviving merchant ship, a Galleon-class cargo ship captained by Caravan Master Lyndzie Myers had crossed the 24 SLY distance to Earth, and was given high priority to process at the spaceport of the city of Detroit, based on her requests to dock being labelled as ‘under urgency’. Her news at first only reached the ears of spaceport officials including commander Elizabeth herself, before the message was relayed directly before the United Congress of Earth and the Council of the Space Agency. After due deliberation the council had come to agree on 3 things: 1) that they were in a state of war. 2) A prominent colony was under siege and desperately needed aid. 3) The enemy was unknown and assumed to be more powerful. Lyndzie had given rough estimates on the number and type of enemy ships to the council but this intelligence was very rudimentary and would take a lot of assuming. Being a military affair, the Superior Commanding Admiral Hans Konig drew the plans for Operation Malicious Intent, allocating 135 ships under command of Grand Captain Dmitry Ganin to this commission and dispatched them for Polaris. The expeditionary force included 14 star dreadnoughts, 90 line escorts and 6 star battlecruisers. Following shortly behind were 10 planetary invasion craft, intended to land on Polaris II and retake major cities in a ground offensive, accompanied by 5 carriers of the human Atmospheric Corps, to contest the Ishamshuk rule of the skies above Polaris II. Reinforcements Arrive The expedition arrived in Polaris in time to intercept and surprise attack an Ishamshuk cruiser patrol, annihilating it. The Ishamshuk responded quickly and the two battlefleets met in the gravity sphere of Polaris II. The Human and Ishamshuk naval forces were equal in number. Thus began the Battle of Polaris II. The ships approached each other from a distance of ~950 kilometers and did not have visual contact with each other, all combat precision control and timing was done via scanners and weapon computer systems. The Ishamshuk waited until the humans were within accurate range and opened fire - unleashing a salvo of guided missile dummies that zig-zagged, twirled and had confusing flight paths intended to distract human point-defense and force them to devote energy and computer power to countermeasures, while also firing off their Blazer beams from the ships-of-the-line’ frontal fixed turrets. The human light cruisers dispatched the missiles but were caught off-guard by the blazers and 12 cruisers were neutralized, being cut in half by the precise heavy beams that struck them. Human ships-of-the-line endured the blazers, their megapolysilicate alloy hulls and heat retardant materials an cooling systems - the type of equipment that only such battleships had the room and energy to maintain - mitigated the damage. Human weapons were much shorter in effective range. The ships turned broadside, forming a line spanning several dozen kilometers and the primary batteries of these human prides unleashed their fury. The pinnacle of human military space engineering, the twin-linked rotary-belt rapid fire Railguns, model 2400 Velocitas Eradico (A Latin phrase meaning, “I, who am speed, eradicate”) began their devastating non-stop barrage at a distance of about 850 kilometers. Perfect and precise computers controlled the batteries and lead the way, making as many of the heavy caliber shells count as possible. The 5 kg shells travelled at hypersonic speeds, mach 7 - 2.4 kilometers per second or 5,400 mph - but would still not reach their intended targets for a little under 11 minutes. The Ishamshuk now released their equivalent weapons, the resonance beamer cannons which fired beams at the speed of light - and would thus hit human ships instantly at this range. Their impact was devastating and unexpected, but no ships were neutralized in the first 3 salvos, after which the Ishamshuk ships were forced to recharge and recalibrate in order to adjust themselves for what they detected coming towards them - a wall of hypersonic chunks of metal, and hundreds more chunks of metal were being hurled at them every second from hundreds of rapid fire railguns. The humans now unleashed their own guided missile distractions. Krieger-class line escorts fired off at least 3 dozen rounds from their COLs (Complex Ordnance Launchers), just as the Ishamshuk were able to fire off another trio of salvos of resonance beamers, with concentrated fire on the UA Empire-class ‘Volga’ until the thrusters were torn from the superstructure. This scrambled the damage control crews aboard the ship, who sealed the airlock. The UA Volga was neutralized for the most part but was still capable of firing its weapon batteries, but could not maneuver away from the following barrage of resonance beams 2 minutes later which finally destroyed the ship. It was the first of human battleships to fall in the Polaris War. Orbital Battle continues By this point the railgun’s projectiles were finally reaching Ishamshuk ships. Their kinetic energy was their biggest weapon - although their impacts caused significant damage to whatever they hit (due to their velocity and mass) the energy they carried pushed Ishamshuk ships, turning them and making several light escorts spin out of control until they were effectively worthless. The heavier ships were heavier to budge, and were met with the power of the Complex Ordnance projectiles, one of the humans’ most powerful weapons. The COL canisters arrived within damage potential of the Ishamshuk fleet after 13 minutes, during a stage in the battle where the Ishamshuk mostly fired their deadly beams and the humans continued their barrage of railgun fire. The COL canisters exploded and sent several dozen small nuclear warheads in a random forward direction. The Ishamshuk were caught off guard and the warheads hit with shocking power - but not as much as the humans were hoping for. 3 Ishamshuk ships were neutralized by the warheads, but the humans were still losing the battle overall. The Ishamshuk lasers were far more reliable and accurate, and did not require long travel time, and when concentrated were deadly against human ships. The constant, nonstop stream of railgun bullets eventually were coming in force. Lucky hits were knocking out turrets, hitting fuel canisters and overwhelming defense systems. The Ishamshuk were forced to withdraw, although they didn’t go far. The humans weapons were incapable of pursuit of a retreat, and the human ships formed a perimeter so that the planetary assault craft and atmospheric corps could safely land on the planet and begin the ground war. This began the Polaris City Offensive. 192,000 human troops laid siege to the Ishamshuk occupied capital, garrisoned by 145,000 of the Ishamshuk elite. The humans brought in tanks, light artillery and orbital and air support. The Ishamshuk orbital dominance faded rapidly, but the fleet was forced to provide assistance. Grand Admiral Uruk-sha moved the fleet in a pincer strike against the human ships. The pincer strike would force the humans to make a choice - and either way they would lose some ships. Uruk-sha had split his fleet in half and formed a distraction surprise attack on both sides of the human perimeter, while ordering the Ishamshuk Terror ships to provide orbital support for the Ishamshuk defenders on the planet below. He needed at least 15 minutes to do what he wanted. The Ishamshuk ships moved in quickly at full thrusters, locked target and had saved enough energy to fire a 3-beam burst from each of their resonance beams, and thus each Ishamshuk ship could fire an initial burst of 3 well-aimed beams before needing 2 minutes to recharge. Uruk-sha hoped this would be sufficient to severely damage if not destroy several human ships, whose weapons would not be able to retaliate until after a few minutes had passed, giving time for his terror ships to bombard the human ground troops from orbit. Uruk-sha’s plan worked well - taking out 20 ships, including 3 ship-of-the-line and 17 line escorts. The humans retaliated and fired off 6 COL canisters and targetted their railguns, beginning their devastating volley. This time the fleets were distanced in such a way that it would take 14 minutes for the projectiles to start causing damage, no thanks to Uruk-sha’s knowledge of human armament by this point. Ground War Meanwhile, the siege of Polaris had proceeded apace. The French Foreign Extra-terrestrial Legion, the ground forces of humanity, had surrounded the city with mortars and light artillery. 2 Maniples had been deployed to this war - 96,000 each, each maniple lead by Centuriones Primorum Remy and Olivier. The senior commanding officer of the ground forces in the war was a Primi Ordinis by the name of Alexandre. Given a few days the soldiers of humanity would assault the city in full force, but for now it was an artillery duel. The human artillery was the steel breech-loaded kind, with emphasis on assault concentration and indirect fire tactics. Ishamshuk artillery, much like their ship armaments, were all laser-based - which meant that they didn’t arch like ballistic guns. Normally this would necessitate the Ishamshuk guns to have line-of-sight on the enemy in order to produce hits, but in this case the beam artillery packed so much energy and heat that all the Ishamshuk had to do was aim the laser straight at its target, and the beam would burn through or melt anything that got in its way towards the target. This included the target and thus anything behind it. The artillery duel was fatal for both sides. The Ishamshuk had taken care to fortify strongpoints but these were easy to hit for human guns. On the other hand, human troops digging in trenches and such to provide cover while assaulting the city were being heavily bombarded and were taking losses, while also having their defenses being destroyed by precise beams hitting their mark.